This week’s handmade co-op puzzle won’t defox itself. If you’re a dab hand at quizzes, lateral thinking, and search engine sleuthing, why not help out.
The ‘cluster foxer’ is regarded by some as the most demanding form. Solving one involves identifying 25 pictures and five hidden themes. The enlargeable mosaic below consists of five interlocked picture clusters (some possible cluster arrangements are shown above) each with its own theme. Themes have nothing in common with each other. Don’t be surprised to find, for example, “Crocodiles”, “Tulip mania”, “Words beginning with “ter””, “1948” and “Fictional policemen” sharing a puzzle. A picture’s connection to a particular theme won’t always be literal. An image of the Brandenburg Gate is just as likely to be part of a “Bach” cluster as a “Berlin” one.
In an attempt to ensure as many people as possible get a chance to participate, Roman requests defoxers solve no more than five squares per person on Day 1, and guess no more than one cluster theme. (After 24 hours have elapsed, fill your boots!). Use your ration to complete an entire horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line before anyone else to win ‘Connect 5’ bragging rights.
* * *
SOLUTIONS
Last week’s collage foxer theme: African capitals (defoxed by copperbottom)
algiers (Nutfield)
antananarivo (Colonel_K)
bamako (copperbottom)
bangui (a_monk)
cairo (a_monk)
conakry (Phlebas)
dakar (Colonel_K)
juba (a_monk)
khartoum (Nutfield)
luanda (a_monk)
mogadishu (unacom)
monrovia (Froggster)
tripoli (Nutfield)
A4 is the wikipedia entry for ‘cushion’
A1 is a farrier using a rasp to file a horse’s hoof https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrier#/media/File:HoofRasp.jpg
A3 is from the movie ‘Logan’s run’
B5 is the ‘carta marina’, the first known map of Nordic countries including place names. By the looks of it, the island shown (called Tile) is Shetland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carta_marina
C3 appears to be the top of the Millennium Falcon
B1 – The German version of the ‘Game of the Goose’ – https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1893-0331-83
D2 – Looks a lot like Sudden Strike 1, but obviously thousands of screenshots out there
D2 – Cuban Missile Crisis
D3 – Titanic Belfast by Eric Kuhne & co.
C5 – Untitled Goose Game
E1 – Victorian Railways S Diesel, exact one, don’t know – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Railways_S_class_%28diesel%29
E3 is from a TV series ‘Titanic’ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1869152/
D4 – Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps book) – Mrs Nutfield
Mrs Nutfield just went crazy and gave me answers to E2, C4, E4 & B4:
But we are only allowed 1 more, so i’ll take:
E2 – Hero, a game of adventure in the catacombs
I’m guessing there is a link of the attempted raising of the Titanic on the lower right hand side.
Will return tomorrow if everything hasn’t been found
D1. Gold Heavyweight Lonsdale Belt won by Henry Cooper thrice
(I’m moderately relieved to learn that Mrs Nutfield is not a devotee of the sweet science!)
D5. Wikipedia page for ‘GOOSE step’ – with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier behind.
Re: A2. it’s difficult to guess what might be the relevant keyword
The planes are the Short Mayo Composite (a piggy-back long-range seaplane and flying boat combination), Mercury atop Maia.
The plaque is on the Dundee waterfront commemorating the world record long-distance seaplane flight in 1938
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Seaplane+Mercury+Commemoration/@56.4560904,-2.9691274,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipN6YWmjQtn0i-dw2QfgM_u5fGWCHrCCnL1v8J6s!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipN6YWmjQtn0i-dw2QfgM_u5fGWCHrCCnL1v8J6s%3Dw397-h298-k-no!7i4000!8i3000!4m9!3m8!1s0x48865db9738fe3ab:0x818090450b11251a!8m2!3d56.4560904!4d-2.9691274!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgAQ!16s%2Fg%2F11fjtp4ds4!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDExNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
E4 – Arthur Rackham illustration for The GOOSE Girl (Brothers Grimm)
E5 – Sergeant GANDER, heroic Newfoundland dog of WW2
C4 is a ‘B28 Extinction class bomber’ from Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes
B4 is ‘Hard head’ (Hardhead?) from the Transformers legends toy line. LG21
B4 – Hardhead?
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hardhead
B3 is the Monument to the discoveries. Lisbon, Portugal.
A5. The submersible Star III outside the Birch Aquarium (next to the Scipps Institute of Oceanography)
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8662673,-117.2493571,3a,75y,340.86h,82.64t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sScEEjY6cJ9eidEFk10RkMA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D7.355083540179152%26panoid%3DScEEjY6cJ9eidEFk10RkMA%26yaw%3D340.8573489193389!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDExNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
-BERRIES
A1. Rasp-
A2. Tay- (Scottish river)
A3. Logan-
B1. Goose-
then either B2. or C1.
B2 – BILberry
Re: E1.
Again one that’s difficult to figure the keyword Roman is hiding.
It may be, as Nutfield has it, a Victorian Railways S-Class Diesel.
It was a feature of the cafe next-door to the Station Hotel, Greville Street, Prahran, Victoria through the 80s and 90s (it’s gone by the time Google Streetview turns up in 2007)
C2 – Colosseum cinema in Oslo
Something to do with MI6 courier Greville Wynne
D1. Exchanged for Soviet spy posing as Gordon Arnold LONSDALE
E1. GREVILLE Wynne
D2. Carried information vital for understanding the CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
most likely also:
C1. ??? (annoyingly IS NOT the Glienicke Bridge where Lonsdale and Wynne were exchanged)
(Doesn’t look like the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge either, where Oleg Penkovsky made first contact)
possibly also E2. Hero
(Book about Oleg Penkovsky is titled Codename: Hero in the US, but I can’t see that this is a recognised designation. He’s most commonly called ‘The Spy who Saved the World’)
Wikipedia gives “Hero” as Penkovsky’s CIA codename.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Penkovsky
C1 – The Tour Eiffel Bridge, also known as the Montcalm Street Bridge, is a small but ornate bridge in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. Built with part of the Eiffel tower.
The Colosseum cinema in C2 is the largest THX cinema in the world, along with the Star Wars stuff is there a George Lucas link?
I reckon ‘Bigness’ is relevant… in a way.
B3. belongs in that group, the important part being the mappa mundi.
I think the lower-left cluster is about the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash
A4 – foam cushions that caught fire
A5 – DSV involved in the search
B4 – Hard Head mission
B5 – Thule
C4 – B28FI thermonuclear bombs
Top-middle cluster is maybe the biggest Lego sets.
C1 – Eiffel Tower
C2 – Colloseum
C3 – Millenium Falcon
B3 – Art World Map
D3 – Titanic
E3 – the actor playing Captain Smith is David Calder – he also played Greville Wynne in a 1985 BBC serial (Wynne and Penkovsky).